In a conventional apparatus such as a digital camera for recording images and audio on a removable recording medium, the general practice is to use a single recording medium in a single logical format (file system). In other words, a single recording medium is handled as a single partition.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the structure of a digital camera serving as such a recording apparatus according to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 5, entrant light from an optical system 101 such as a lens is converted to an electrical signal by an image sensor 102. A camera signal processor 103 applies processing such as a digital conversion and white balance adjustment to the electrical signal that is output from the image sensor 102. At the time of recording, a recording/playback signal processor 104 converts the signal received from the camera signal processor 103 to data for recording on a recording medium 110. The recording medium 110 is a removable read/write recording medium (e.g., an IC card) in which the entirety of the medium has been logically formatted as one volume. At the time of recording, a recording/playback unit 105 writes data from the recording/playback signal processor 104 to the recording medium 110. A system controller 106, which has, e.g., a CPU, RAM and ROM. Management of the status of each unit in the apparatus and control of executed processing are performed by having the CPU of the system controller execute a program, which has been recorded in the ROM, while utilizing the RAM. A control console 107 comprises buttons and switches on the main body of the apparatus, or a remote controller, whereby a processing execute/halt command such as for starting and ending photography and various settings are input to the apparatus by the user.
An output processing unit 108 receives a signal for output from the recording/playback signal processor 104 and outputs display data or data conforming to various interfaces. A display unit 109 such as a viewfinder or liquid crystal panel displays a signal for output (confirmation of a recorded image, a setting menu, etc.) from the recording/playback signal processor 104.
At the time of playback, an operation that is the reverse of that at the time of recording is executed. In other words, the recording/playback unit 105 reads out data that has been recorded on the recording medium 110, the recording/playback signal processor 104 subjects this data to a signal conversion for output and outputs the resultant signal to the output processing unit 108.
Though there is no particular illustration regarding audio, an analog voice signal acquired using a microphone is digitized by the camera signal processor 103, noise removal and filter processing are applied as necessary by the recording/playback signal processor 104, and then the resultant signal is written to a recording medium by the recording/playback unit 105. Further, at the time of playback, the recording/playback unit 105 reads out data that has been recorded on the recording medium 110, the recording/playback signal processor 104 applies signal processing to obtain a signal for output, and the signal is delivered to the output processing unit 108. The signal is amplified by the output processing unit 108 and output from a speaker, which is not shown.
A recording apparatus that is capable of utilizing a plurality of recording media has also been proposed. For example, the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-153376 proposes an arrangement having at least first and second recording media (an IC memory card and a hard disk card) of different data recording formats, in which the hard disk card can be used only when the apparatus is driven by an AC power supply. Further, the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-267818 (WO00/55719) proposes a method of implementing a plurality of partitions by an exchangeable recording medium.
Conventionally, the storage capacity of a removable recording medium is comparatively small and the medium is considered to be unsuitable for storing a large quantity of data. However, increasing the capacity of a removable recording medium would enable the recording of a large amount of data and therefore methods of utilizing such recording medium are now being reexamined.
Furthermore, increasing the capacity of a removable recording medium means that the capacity capable of being handled by the conventional logical format (file system) will be exceeded, and novel logical formats that are not compatible with the conventional-type logical format are now being utilized. In view of these circumstances, in order to maintain compatibility with conventional-type logical formats and for the sake of data classification, it is predicted that areas that have been logically formatted differently from one another will be mixed in the same recording medium and that a recording area will be used upon being divided into a plurality of partitions. In fact, in personal computers, an increase in the capacity of hard disks (although these are not removable storage media) has been accompanied by the dividing of the storage area of the hard disk into a plurality of partitions and the selective usage of the partitions depending upon the application.
However, the selection of a recording destination in a case where a plurality of partitions exist on a single recording medium has not been considered in a conventional recording apparatus that uses a removable recording medium.